How is your progress so far?
I realised earlier today that it is exactly 1 year since I started learning Spanish. I returned from a holiday in Spain last August embarrassed that literally the only words I could say in Spanish were cerveza, gracias and por favor. So I thought I should really try to learn the language - after all I plan to live there in 3 or 4 years time.
So to my progress. Well, I think I have a reasonable understanding of the whole structure of the language - ie verb tenses, moods, etc. My vocabulary is improving and I am starting to find it easier to read and write basic sentences.
Overall I am happy with my reading and writing progress, however, I still find it very difficult to understand spoken Spanish. Even words / phrases that I know, seem difficult when I hear them spoken. I wonder whether I will ever master this. My problem is I still translate in my head. I know that I need to stop this but it is difficult at the moment. As for my spoken Spanish, I am ok with very basic things but again, I find it difficult to think fast enough in Spanish to really convey what I am trying to say. I hope, in time, this will become more natural to me.
What about you, how long have you been learning and how are you progressing?
13 Answers
Overall I am happy with my reading and writing progress, however, I still find it very difficult to understand spoken Spanish. Even words / phrases that I know, seem difficult when I hear them spoken. I wonder whether I will ever master this. My problem is I still translate in my head. I know that I need to stop this but it is difficult at the moment. As for my spoken Spanish, I am ok with very basic things but again, I find it difficult to think fast enough in Spanish to really convey what I am trying to say. I hope, in time, this will become more natural to me.
Reading this actually makes me happy. (I'm not happy that you are having these issues - I am happy because I could have written that paragraph exactly the way that you did!)
I have been studying Spanish for just over a year, and if I have learned it I can read it and/or write it. Speaking it is more difficult, and understanding spoken Spanish is the most difficult for me.
Reading that you are having the exact same difficulties makes me feel more, well, normal. 
I'm sure everybody has these issues, and in time I'm sure we'll see them slowly disappear.
(¡Ojalá que sí!)
Progress?
Currently I am progressing along a seemingly endless and desolate plain, devoid of all signs of life but the skeletons of my former triumphs. In the back of my mind, I whisper to myself words of encouragement–but without conviction–that the horizontal landscape stretching out before me is really not quite so infinite as it might seem, that I have indeed not yet reached the pinnacle of my abilities, that the issue is too close to me to be judged accurately, that in reality, the road I am on ends not in a boundless plateau, but continues along a gently sloping path.
That is what I tell myself.
That is my progress.
I have been learning for a little bit more than two years. My vocabulary is very good, and can read most ( 75%?) of what I see and just fill in the blanks for the rest. My listening comprehension isn't the best...I can get the gist of what is said but nothing too exact YET 
. When I write, I overthink it and I go "Is this the correct word? Correct word order?" etc. But whenever I speak it I don't have time to think; I just have to SAY whatever comes out and hope I don't sound TOO foreign haha. I think I would be learning much faster if I had more opportunities to speak. I also translate in my head sometimes, although I try not to!
I think I just need to have more conversations with natives/ be immersed in one of the countries.
It has been many years since I have been in a place of feeling like I would never learn spanish well. And although I know there will always be more to learn as it is not my first langauge, I am at a level now that I can rely on myself and have many many dear friends in Latin America who do not know any english, but we communicate better then with many english friends. So all this is to say...good job and there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. I remember getting frusterated, feeling like I wasn't learning fast enough, (I was living in Mexico at the time) and getting sick of feeling lost in translation but at about the 9-10 month in point something clicked. I started knowing things without translating them...i could look at a chair, and insted of thinking, "chair in spanish is silla" I could just look at it and call it a "silla". The day that i realized that i was recognizing things in spanish and not translating, was the day that i gained enough confidence to just start talking, and now if i know the correct word or don't i talk, and i talk, and people either correct me or understand me. The nervousness is gone, and the translating is gone. Keep track of conversations or vocab that you no longer had to first translate, and that first day that you make through a whole 5 minutes (or 2 as the case may be) that you have all the spanish vocab down without having to think about it....celebrate because you are that much closer to making it a whole hour, or a whole day, or a whole year that your learning will be able to become much quicker and much more reliant on people who you encounter and life itself. Hopefully that makes sence, I always find it hard to explain how it clickseventually, but I have heard friends tell me the same, that once they get to the point where a silla is just a chair not a 'chair in spanish' it gets easier.
After I got home from a vacation/birding trip to Ecuador about 20 months ago, I felt the same way you did - I knew so little Spanish I was disgusted with myself. I had taken four years of high school Spanish classes many years ago, but I felt like I remembered none of that. I wasn't a very good student of Spanish back then.
So I went to my local library, and got out Spanish For Dummies (the 4-volume super-book version) and read it all the way through from page 1. I thought it was a great refresher, except it proved to me that I forgot everything. Odd, though, I recognized the topics and felt a sense of deja vu; I recognized having learned it all, but still didn't remember the substance of it.
By month 8, I felt I had re-learned just about everything, but lacked practice. Then off to Panama for a birding trip (exactly a year ago). I felt confident. The reality was different. I was very shy and hesitant, but not completely useless. I felt that I was mostly translating, not speaking.
I was not discouraged. Just then, I discovered SpanishDict. That kept me motivated and constantly gave me practice. I added a lot to my vocabulary. But the key wasn't how many words I knew, but rather, how many words I knew well. Today, sentences and conversation limited to my firmly learned vocabulary is fairly fluent. I don't feel that I'm translating. When I stray to topics that include newer vocabulary, I fall back towards translating.
I think when you get to the boundary between translating to speak, and just speaking without translating, you'll find it's not a very sharp boundary. You will gain from practice, an ability to use words without translating.
So work on your vocabulary in different ways. Some basic vocabulary (including use of conjugated verbs) should be practiced in the context of sentences. Newer vocabulary should be frequently reviewed until it joins the ranks of your basic vocabulary. And you should keep adding new words, which will eventually become solidly learned old words (just don't expect that to happen overnight).
Practice, practice, practice.
Hi mate. If I was you I would seriously consider hiring a private teacher. I've done this twice over the 7 years that I've been learning and I can't recommend it highly enough. The idea is simple but really effective: You meet for an hour a week with a Spanish person and you pay him/her to suffer you mangling their beautiful language (just kidding
) Seriously though...it works. Even better is that you already know a lot more than you think you do so you won't need tuition - you can learn that for free here. So you get to spend a whole hour doing what you really should be doing - sweating, stammering and having a great laugh all at the same time! If your budget stretches that far..I think you should go for it!
Hi!
(Hey, for the future, "realised" is spelt "realized." Just thought you should know.)
Okay, my progress.
I started 56 weeks ago, almost to my year mark! (next week)
Last year I started basic Spanish one in 7th grade. My first time E-V-E-R seeing Spanish. Fast forward 56 weeks- wow. Blink. In June, July, and August, I took a summer break, with practicing Spanish for 15 minuets every three weeks. (Shame on me. I'm serious. Shouldn't of done that.) I'm rusty a little now, getting back in the hang of it. I can have a basic conversation, er, greetings, I like your shirt, I go to school, blah, blah, blah, blah... I can't do anything deep and really intellectual. My grammar gets better the more people correct, the more I memorize, more I read. I'm good at memorizing terms for tests, so memorizing for say, a week, and it's perfect memory. But, 9 months later, it's a little fuzzy. Ooh well. When people speak, like fluent adults in real Spanish, I can only catch so many words. Hearing is my problem. But if an 8 year old talks to me, I can have a conversation! (I know it sounds silly, but..) At Kohl's six months ago, I ran into an 8 year old (and I was 12, so it's not creepy) and we started talking in Spanish. She taught me a little, very kind. So.. I would say I am a 6 yr old level of a fluent Spanish child. I can write pretty well, pronucation is a little shaky but better than average, but my drive and love of Spanish is amazing. I love Spanish! I pray to my God in Spanish. I love that. Not always, but a "Glory Be" here and there.
Hope I didn't bore you.
The feeling that you are making progress can be the most motivating and exciting reason to keep on working, but unfortunately it is so hard to measure inch by inch. Or even verb by verb!
Sometimes, when I am feeling discouraged, I go back to a podcast that was difficult for me to understand last year or a flashcard set that was tricky six months ago. When I find that I can do better now, I have proof that I am, indeed, learning and progressing.
I know that if I had the ability to run off to Spain or Mexico, I would learn faster. Wouldn't it be great to immerse oneself completely and just soak sun and Spanish for weeks or months? But for me, it's not in the cards right now. So I slug along, practicing the imperfect subjunctive and searching out those few chances I find to actually speak with people.
How is my progress? Slow. But I'm getting there. I am far enough down the road to know that I won't give up. I am starting to understand about 80% of what people say in their normal conversations. I can finally follow a movie or a television show. I talk to myself, for lack of a better participant, and I eavesdrop in the grocery store. You should see me, pretending to be interested in which brand of frozen spinach to buy...
SpanishDict is a great source for learning and practicing, but sometimes the most valuable thing is the support we get from one another. I love being in a group that is so diverse in backgrounds and levels of learning. It helps to keep me going, and if I keep going I'll get there. Not as fast as some, but that's okay!
I have been studying Spanish for almost two years. I have a huge advantage over many people trying to learn Spanish because I live in Ecuador. I also have a huge disadvantage because I am over fifty and don't learn as fast as I did when I was younger. . .looking back to when I had a French roommate in college, I am learning Spanish about 10 times slower than I learned French, and I attribute that entirely to age.
I am not discouraged and I have a lot of time to get to where I want to be--I think it will take about two more years. More importantly, I'm enjoying the process and meeting a lot of nice people here and in real life that are helping me.
Oh, Mr. Billygoat....... I think I know what you mean. Although I have not been studying Spanish as long as you have (only approx 6 mo), I'm feeling the same way about understanding spoken Spanish and more so at trying to speak Spanish myself.
As you said, I too can't seem to THINK fast enough in Spanish, to come up with the right thing to say!
I'm not sure I know what you meant by:
"My problem is I still translate in my head. I know that I need to stop this but it is difficult at the moment." Did you mean you can't think in Spanish? I'm sure that I would do that in my head too.
At least you had exposure to Spanish speaking people. I know why my lack of ability to speak in Spanish is so poor. I do not get the chance to use it! And I'm very unsure of myself when I do.
Hang in there! We just need to keep practicing I guess!
Watch movies in Spanish, listen to Spanish music, set the language settings of your cellphone and other appliances that you use every day to Spanish and try to talk as much as you can with Spanish speaking people, that helps alot for me to understand and speak Spanish.
Of course apart from that, learn to read and write Spanish too.
Spanish!
Saludos
I am approaching the 2 year mark and I think I'm doing quite well I have a good grasp of the grammar and I'm learning a lot of vocabulary with flashcards. My greatest problems are: speaking in an authentic conversation, which I have almost no practice in; and listening, beyond news-speed Spanish it's very hard. I'm starting to stop translating in my head but only with commonly heard phrases and structures.
Having read these responses. I am surely the slowest learner to ever visit this website.
